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AN 


ADDRESS 


TO TH K 


PEOPLE OF MARYLAND, 


WILLIAM H.TOLLINS, 


nr 


OF BALTIMORE. 


FOURTH EDITION. 



BALTIMORE: 


PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG, 

114 WEST BALTIMORE STREET. 


1861 . 








' 







































































































®o the ffeople of HJaegtatitl 


I trust the condition of public affairs will secure your par¬ 
don for the language I venture to address to you on the mo¬ 
mentous questions which agitate the public mind. My life, 
and the lives of those from whom I sprung, have been passed 
on your soil. Though I have never sought office at your 
hands, or at those of the General Government, I trust I need 
not say to those of you who know me, that my whole circle 
of influence (small as it may have been) has been in favor 
of the welfare and continuance of the Union of the States, 
and of the welfare and honor of the State of Maryland. 

If asked whether I love the Union or the State of Mary¬ 
land most, my reply is prompt and frank. I love the Union 
most. Born under the Union—my heart has leapt at that 
glorious name from the earliest recollections of my childhood 
to the frosty years of an age which, though it has impaired 
my health and activity, has not diminished the intensity of 
the love I hear my country. Her glory, her honor, her 
power, her union, her happiness and welfare, now and for¬ 
ever, are dearer to me than life. As a bright gem set in the 
bosom of this glorious Union, Maryland has my strong and 
loyal affections. I have watched her prosperity with the 
fondest solicitude from my earliest life, and yet I say to you 
I love the Union more than Maryland. 

If I wished to call to your recollection the Triumvirate 
in my own day which has stood most deeply rooted in the 
American heart, I need hardly pronounce the names of Jack- 
son, Clay and Webster. Each differing from the others, they 




4 


An Addrefs to the 


stood before their country the unflinching supporters of our 
glorious Union. Each and all of them loomed up before the 
country as the colossal guardians of the Union of the States 
forever. Differing on other questions, on this they agreed. 
If any one say that Jackson, or Clay, or Webster, ever placed 
his devotion to the continuance of the Union on an if or a 
but, oi* a contingency , let him produce the proof. No such 
proof exists. The most confidential conversations of the 
Hermitage and of Ashland, and of Marshfield, never whis¬ 
pered a thought disloyal to the perpetuity of our Union ; hut 
were full of that deep and undying love which such great 
hearts only feel for the country which gave them life, and 
for the welfare and honor of which they delighted to employ 
the high gifts nature bestowed on them in her bounty. 

About thirty years ago threats of resistance to the laws 
of the country startled the ears of many for the first time 
who are still in the vigor of life. That deep seated love of 
country which was the strongest feeling in the breast of An¬ 
drew Jackson, honored, aided and shared by Daniel Webster 
and Henry Clay, averted the dire calamity then threatened. 
For the conduct of these three illustrious men on this trying 
occasion, the country owes an eternal debt of gratitude. It 
has pointed out a path to their successors, which, if followed, 
leads to glory and renown. Never, on any occasion has the 
heart of this great country beat more freely than in the ap¬ 
proval it gave to the firm and wise measures then pursued. 

In eighteen hundred and fifty the cry of resistance was 
again raised in consequence of the dissatisfaction of some por¬ 
tions of the country with the Compromise Measures so ably 
proposed and carried under the lead of Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster. Fortunately this was stifled in the places where 
it begun. 

No more was heard of the cry of disunion until the wicked 
and miserable raid of John Brown. Efforts were then made 
to use this attempt as the basis of another disunion move¬ 
ment. Fortunately, however, the country saw that the raid 
of John Brown was as utterly powerless and unsuccessful as 


5 


People of Maryland. 

it was wicked and traitorous ; and the whole affair was pro¬ 
perly turned over to the courts and the hangman as the best 
and wisest termination of that most insane adventure. 

In eighteen hundred and sixty an election for the Presi¬ 
dency occurred under the provisions of the Constitution. A 
conservative portion of the country North and South pre¬ 
sented the names of an eminent Southern statesman for the 
Presidency, and of an equally eminent Northern statesman for 
the Yice-Presidency. The Democratic party failed to agree, 
and the result was, ^hat party divided and two sets of can¬ 
didates were presented by it. The Republican party made 
its nominations also. 

It is extremely probable, if not absolutely certain, if the 
Democratic party had presented hut one set of candidates, 
and those known to be conservative and union men, reliable 
and true, that those candidates would have been elected. In 
that event it is equally certain that under high patriotic mo¬ 
tives a very large portion of the votes given to the statesmen 
of Tennessee and Massachusetts would have been cast for the 
Democratic nominees. 

On the other hand, I deem it perfectly certain, if the Dem¬ 
ocratic party, finding itself unable to agree on candidates of 
its own, had agreed to adopt the nomination already before 
the country, of the distinguished statesmen of Tennessee and 
Massachusetts—that in that event John Bell and Edward 
Everett would now he the President and Vice-President elect 
of this great country. The truth is, and it should he kept 
in view always, that the Republican party has succeeded not 
by its own strength, but by the divisions of its opponents. 
It stood as a unit whilst its opponents were divided amongst 
three sets of candidates. Its triumph and their defeat were 
just as certain at the beginning as at the close of the contest. 

What then must be the surprise and condemnation of the 
Union-loving and Law-abiding citizens of the State of Mary¬ 
land when they hear the cries of secession, rebellion, dis¬ 
union, borne upon the winds in strains louder, fiercer, and 
more appalling than when they struck the ear of Andrew 


6 


An Addrefs to the 


Jackson and roused his lion heart to resolve that“The Union, 
It must he preserved.’’ Why these cries? What reason is 
assigned for them ? The election of Abraham Lincoln is the 
cause assigned. This is strange, passing strange, when it is 
remembered that these ominous cries come from the Sunny 
South—which in fact secured Mr. Lincoln’s election through 
divisions created by herself. The South might, if she had 
so pleased, have defeated Mr. Lincoln by nominating either 
Bell or Douglas. It seems she preferred the election of Lin¬ 
coln to either; for to put her candidate^in the field was to 
insure the success of the Republican nominees. 

I desire to place before you, citizens of Maryland, some of 
the horrible results which must flow from your abandonment 
of the Union and going off into a new government with no 
matter whom. I wish to show you that the ancient and uni¬ 
form fidelity of the people of Maryland to the Union, is not 
the result only of a lofty patriotism—which I trust will be 
immortal with you and your descendants—but that your 
safety, your freedom, your very existence depend on the con¬ 
tinuance of that Union “now and forever, one and insepa¬ 
rable.” 

I do not deny that various States at the North have passed 
laws in violation of our constitutional rights, and of the sacred 
obligations they owe to our common country. I do not deny 
that those States owe it to our common brotherhood—to the 
clear provisions of the Constitution, and to the most sacred 
ties which bind them to their country—to repeal those laws. 
I do not deny that you have suffered from those laws in loss 
of your property—more, probably manifold more, than all 
the cotton States of the South. All this you know full well, 
snd have waited patiently and patriotically for the returning 
reason and honor of the North to do you justice. And yet 
under these wrongs, good, honest, brave, dear old Maryland^ 
has never dreamed of breaking up our glorious Union. She 
has trusted, and still trusts, to the patriotism, the justice and 
the honor of the Northern States for the repeal of all laws 
passed by them inconsistent with the clear provisions of the 


People of Maryland. 7 

Constitution of tlie United States. This trust, I am sure, 
will, at no distant day, he redeemed and justified. 

People of Maryland, if you are asked “ What is the Union 
worth ?” would you not with one outburst reply, It is a 
thing to love; it is a thing to worship, if anything deserves 
such homage except the great God who rules the world. Its 
eagle, its stars, and its stripes, have ever been proudly borne 
before the nations of the earth. They have often been bap¬ 
tised in blood upon the land and upon the sea—but never 
dishonored. That ensign is known throughout the world, 
and in every clime the name American ensures respect. 
Born under the Union, we have shared ils countless bless¬ 
ings. Come what may, we mean to abide in it and by 
it. If others leave it we will stand by it. We devote 
ourselves and our children, and our children’s children 
to its maintenance, now and forever. So long as Ameri¬ 
can blood flows in American veins, we pray and beseech 
the great Ruler of the world to give our countrymen courage, 
devotion, patriotism and strength, to uphold the sacred ban¬ 
ner of bur liberties in every land and on every sea where it 
may be unfurled, with a firm resolve never to allow a Star to 
be struck from its ensign—but to uphold and maintain and 
defend our American Union against every foe. 

Such, people of Maryland, I am sure would be your answer. 

I now propose to present to you what would be your con¬ 
dition if in any mad hour you abandon your present resting 
place in the bosom of the Union, and make Mason and Dixon’s 
line, which separates you from Pennsylvania, the Northern 
boundary of the new government into which you would enter. 

It seems to me too clear for question, that the government 
of the North, which, no doubt, would continue under the 
present Constitution and with the present name of the “United 
States of America,” would be superior in maritime power to 
that of the South into which you are supposed to have entered. 
What then would be your condition ? Look at the map of 
your State—you will find there a straight line of about two 
hundred miles separating you from Pennsylvania. That line 


8 


An Addrefs to the 


is purely artificial, and can he defended only by your keep¬ 
ing a superior military force ready to take the field, trained 
and equipped for battle. On that line a rapid march of one 
or two hours would reach the Potomac at Cumberland. The 
possession of Cumberland by an enemy would cut off your 
coal fields on which a large part of your people depend for 
fuel—and would stop all trade and traffic on your principal 
railroad west of Cumberland. 

Your State is also divided by the Chesapeake Bay into two 
portions of unequal size, and if the North would, as she must, 
be the superior maritime power, she could by a few vessels 
of war command^the Chesapeake Bay, control the mouth of 
the Patapsco, seal up the port of Baltimore, and prevent aid 
or communication from the one shore to the other. 

On the Western Shore your State gradually narrows, with¬ 
out a single military point, to the mouth of the Potomac, 
where that noble stream meets the Chesapeake Bay. The 
tide-water of the Potomac extends a mile or so above George¬ 
town—below which is a noble stream incapable of being 
forded. If your brethren at the South were to send an army 
to defend you, no military man at the head of that army 
would ever allow himself to be placed in front of an enemy 
below the tide-waters of the Potomac. The first point in mili¬ 
tary strategy is to secure a safe retreat in the event of mis¬ 
fortune. This rule would imperiously demand that he should 
never allow himself to be forced below the tides, and in the 
event of defeat, he would be forced to cross the upper waters of 
the Potomac and to leave Maryland to her fate. 

Your commercial emporium is within some thirty miles of 
this defenceless northern border without any obstruction to 
the march of an enemy except the brave hearts of Maryland 
Sons. Your white population is about six hundred thousand 
—and you would thus be brought face to face with a govern¬ 
ment, three of whose States nearest to you, Pennsylvania, 
New York and Ohio, contain a white population of near ten 
millions of people—to say nothing of other great and power¬ 
ful States of the supposed Northern government. 

Should you enter into a new confederacy of the South the 


9 


People of Maryland. 

first thing you would have to do would he to drive the General 
Government out of Washington. I take it for granted that 
the government of the North would still claim to be, and bear 
the title of the “ United States of America/’ acting under 
and governed by the present Constitution. Think you that 
this powerful government would slink away like a whipped 
hound, at your bidding, and retire from the prestige and ad¬ 
vantages it would enjoy from exercising its functions at our 
present Capital ? Never ! If human nature can ever be read 
in advance, I repeat it, never ! 

If you attempt to drive the President, elected according to 
the forms of the Constitution, from the place assigned him 
by that Constitution for the exercise of his high functions, 
think you that the teeming millions of the North would not 
rush to the rescue of the government ? The North may he 
slow to anger, hut the gallant Southron may well look to 
his numbers, his armor, and his strength, when he meets 
the slower and cooler courage of the North fairly roused into 
action. 

People of Maryland, if you ever desert our present Union, 
remember that the cession of the District of Columbia to the 
General Government has left you no retreat except what you 
can hew with your swords. Your secession from the present 
Union is to close the gates of the Capitol and to refuse to 
allow Congress or the President to enter. It would be to 
surround the District of Columbia by a Foreign State. To 
do this would be to leave those who would still be in the 
estimation of the world the “ United States of America” to 
abandon the Capital, and surrender the archives of the Gov¬ 
ernment and the noble buildings erected for its use, or to 
fight to maintain them. Can you question the choice? Can 
you doubt it? It is the same blood that flows in the veins 
of the North as of the South; and who ever knew Anglo- 
Saxon blood that did not know how to look calmly at the 
flash of the sword! If that blood has been partly crossed 
by the German, the Scotch, the Irish, and the French, do 
you not know that those races have been up with the fore- 


IO 


An Addrefs to the 


most in a thousand battle fields ? During our Revolution, it 
was a son of New England who nobly declared, when placed 
at the head of the Southern army, “I will re-conquer South 
Carolina or perish in the attemptand he did it. Courage 
is a quality that belongs to our country—to the North as 
well as the South, to the East as well as the West. 

But suppose you succeed in driving the General Govern¬ 
ment out of Washington. What then? Created and sup¬ 
ported by the patronage of the General Government, it might 
revert to you as the original grantor. But what would it 
become? Would it not he a waste and a ruin? What 
would he the effect of the destruction of the city of Washing¬ 
ton on the adjoining counties of Maryland bordering on the 
Potomac? Just such, or nearly such, as the destruction of 
Baltimore would produce on the value of property in Balti¬ 
more county and other counties adjacent thereto. What 
would he the value of your railroad to Washington, now the 
most profitable of all our State investments ? 

If the city of Washington is to become a waste and crumb¬ 
ling ruin, may my eyes never again rest on the noble pile 
devoted to the government of our country ! May I never 
again behold the lofty monument being erected to the memory 
of the Father of his Country ! May my feet never hereafter 
tread the sacred soil of Mount Vernon ! No ! Before you 
destroy the Constitution and the Union, which are the true 
monuments of Washington’s glory, let Virginia take his 
sacred ashes and commit them to the pure stream of the Po¬ 
tomac. Let Maryland destroy the lofty shaft on which 
stands the peerless form of the mighty dead ! Let Congress 
demolish the still loftier shaft now rising to his memory on 
the hanks of the Potomac, and order the return of every 
block of marble which has been contributed by Foreign States 
in honor of his name, with the frank acknowledgment that 
his countrymen are not worthy to behold a pile erected to 
his honor, because they have repudiated the work of his 
hands and broken to pieces the Government of Liberty and 
Law which he devoted his life to construct. 


People of Maryland. n 

If Maryland were to join a new government of the South 
—I put it, people of Maryland, to your better judgment— 
how long would she remain a Slave State? With no right 
to demand from the North the surrender of the fugitive slave, 
except under a Union and Constitution which she is sup¬ 
posed to have abandoned, and with the certainty that her 
soil would either be occupied by an enemy, or else be the 
battle field in all contests, wars and invasions by the North 
this side of the Alleghenies, would not policy, would not 
interest, would not safety, force those of you who own slaves 
to send them South for security, where the labor of the slave 
has long been more profitable than with you ? Under these 
circumstances would you not in a year or two, of necessity, 
cease to be slave owners ? And what would be your condi¬ 
tion as a Free State in alliance with the Slave States of the 
South? Would they trust you? Would they love you? 
Would they treat you as their equal? I leave the answer 
to your calm and deliberate judgement. 

There is % another matter I feel^oimd to state to you— 
though I do it with the deepest regret. I have the strongest 
conviction that the cotton States, if they throw off their 
allegiance to the General Government, intend to form a gov¬ 
ernment of their own, and to refuse to pass any laws prohi¬ 
biting the African slave trade, and thus, indirectly at least, 
to sanction that terrible traffic. This they well know would 
never be agreed to by North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. I repeat, they well 
know that the reopening of the slave trade would be resisted 
to the last extremity by the grain growing States I have 
named. The dreams of the seceders of the cotton States 
look to far richer acquisitions and associations, to be formed 
out of the provinces of Mexico and Central America, and 
perchance of some of the West India islands, to be cultivated 
by hundreds of thousands of freshly and cheaply imported 
slaves from the coast of Africa. The grain growing States 
of the South would be more valuable to them as a friendly 
barrier against the North, as Mr. Yancey has frankly ad- 


12 


An Addrefs to the 


mitted in his famous letter to Slaughter. This is the true 
service to be rendered by the grain-growing States of the 
South to the cotton States. Beyond this the cotton States 
have interests and plans inconsistent with their union with 
you—unless you submit to terms dictated by them. 

In the event of secession by Maryland, what would Delaware 
do? She is a small State, it is true, hut her course would 
be of the greatest importance to Maryland in her new asso¬ 
ciations, as the refusal of Delaware to go with us would add 
more than one hundred miles of free border to our State. 
Delaware has now less than two thousand slaves—a number 
scarcely equal to that of single individuals in the South. Bor¬ 
dering on the Delaware river and bay for the larger and 
richer part of her State, Delaware is bound to Pennsylvania 
by all the ties of commercial, political and social interests. 
She has no heavy stake in slavery, and in a few years, under 
any circumstances, will become a free State. This result 
would follow almost immediately if she were to go with the 
South, for reasons similar, but still stronger, than^those which 
would press on Marylanu. If she remain in the Union under 
the present Constitution, she would be protected (as would 
Maryland also be, under a similar course) by the guarantees 
of that Constitution as to her slave property—the passing off 
of which would, in that event, be scarcely accelerated in 
either State. Delaware was the first State to accept the 
Constitution, and I doubt not that her patriotism, her duty, 
as also her interests, will keep her steady at her post. If 
Maryland secedes, she must count on two hundred miles of 
free border separating her from Penns} r lvania, and a hundred 
miles of free border, soon to be, separating her from Dela¬ 
ware. 

People of Maryland—what is this right of a State to secede 
from the Union? Have you held it in former days, or your 
fathers before you ? Has it not been denied by a vast ma¬ 
jority of the powerful intellects of our country—of her best 
and ablest statesmen ? Whether it assume the form of nul¬ 
lification or secession, is it not rebellion? The noblest ora- 


x 3 


People of Maryland. 

tor of our country, in the finest passage he ever uttered, 
said : “ For the gentleman to speak of nullification, and yet 
say that he would stop short of secession, rebellion, disunion, 
is as if he were to take the leap of Niagara and cry out that 
he would stop half way down.” If secession means rebellion 
I understand it. If that rebellion fail, it is treason. If it 
succeed, it is revolution. This I also understand. Rebel¬ 
lion and revolution are ancient words, and have often been 
enacted under all the forms of government in the world. I 
deny, and the vast majority of you have always denied, any 
other mode of breaking up our government than by resort¬ 
ing to these ancient modes, which, for intolerable oppression, 
have been practised throughout the world. 

To the extent of the powers possessed by the General Gov¬ 
ernment, under the Constitution, she is a unit—as much so 
as any government in the world. She can be destroyed only 
as other governments may be destroyed. If she be guilty of 
oppression and abuse we have, under the Constitution, the 
courts, the ballot-box, and the system of checks and balances 
growing out of the different construction of our Senate and 
House of Representatives. If these fail, outside of the Con¬ 
stitution, if the grievance be intolerable, and no other hope 
left, we have the universal right of rebellion. These are 
our safeguards, and I have the strong assurance that without 
resorting to the last terrible remedy, the former will, in the 
end, prove sufficient to secure all our rights. 

Maryland has no more right to secede from the Union than 
Florida, or Louisiana, or California. The rights of all the 
States, old and new, are equal. This is the admitted doc¬ 
trine. Shall Florida, or Louisiana, or California have the 
right to secede from the Union on the ground of State sov¬ 
ereignty, or of reserved state rights ? We bought the first 
two with the money of the General Government, and Cali¬ 
fornia we acquired by the old fashioned process of conquest. 
All that these three States have—their lands and all their 
rights—they got from the Government of the United States. 
I admit they are equal to the old States, and no more ; and 


H 


An Addrefs to the 


the old States are equal to them, and no more. But surely a 
right of secession cannot be claimed by any one of the three 
States named ; and if not b} r them—it cannot be claimed by 
any other State, because all the States are equal. 

I have heard much for some years past about the sovereign 
States of this Union. It is the fashion of the day to speak 
of our States as sovereign ; though it is conceded that a State 
cannot have an army or a navy, or declare war or make peace, 
or make a treaty with a foreign power or with another State, 
or have ambassadors, or lay duties on imports, or coin money, 
or pass any laws in violation of the Constitution of the United 
States or the acts of Congress passed pursuant thereto. The 
several States, no doubt, have reserved all rights of legisla¬ 
tion, &c., which have not been granted to the General Gov¬ 
ernment. But is it not an abuse of language to call the State 
sovereign f I call your attention to this view because I 
believe the contrary doctrine has prevented the enforcement 
of the Fugitive Slave Law by the strong hand of the national 
power. The States most deeply interested in the execution 
of that law have, for many years, had the executive of the 
country of their own selection ; but they were unwilling to 
enforce the law against the clearly void legislation of North¬ 
ern States, because, forsooth, the same results might be 
brought home to themselves, in regard to void legislation of 
a different description. The truth is, the General Govern¬ 
ment should enforce, if necessary, with the whole power 
of the Union, all its laws passed in pursuance of the provis¬ 
ions of the Constitution, in the North and in the South, in 
the East and in the West, without regard to the laws of any 
State passed in contravention thereof. This is the ancient 
doctrine—it is the true doctrine. 

It seems strange that the question of slavery in the Ter¬ 
ritories should at present convulse our country throughout 
its vast area, when, in truth, we have no Territories in which 
slavery ever will or can exist. Why should the North press 
this question, when it is certain that all the present Territo¬ 
ries will be free, no matter what the legislation on the subject 


x 5 


People of Maryland. 

of slavery ? And why should the South take the Territorial 
question so much to heart when we have no Territory fitted 
for her institutions ? Climate and production will settle this 
question. We have no Territories fitted for the production 
of cotton, sugar and rice. Without these, or some of these 
products, slavery will never plant itself in a new country. 
With these products it will he sure to go, no matter what 
the legislation. Why then these angry feuds? Is it because 
we may acquire other Territory fitted for slavery ? Rather 
than have these feuds—these threats of rebellion—let us close 
the boundaries of the Republic and resolve to acquire no more. 

The peaceful breaking up of this great government with¬ 
out a struggle to maintain it, would be a miracle. It can 
never be. Whence then would come the sinews of war— 
money ? If the government were to divide on Mason and 
Dixon’s line and the Ohio, and a contest ensues, would not 
the Southern part require during the war a vast annual out¬ 
lay—of some fifty or sixty millions of dollars at least? 
Besides the ordinary expenses of government, she would 
have to create navies and armies, and maintain them at a 
war-poinfi The States of the South only could borrow mo¬ 
ney, for the government of the South would be unknown, 
and unrecognized by the capital of the world. Some of the 
largest and strongest of the Southern States have already, in 
their efforts at internal improvements, pressed their credit as 
far as it will reasonably bear even in peace and in the Union. 
If this severance and contest take place, so far from being 
able to borrow other large sums, the existing stock of those 
States would not command fifty cents in the dollar in the 
markets of the world. The only alternative would be a 
resort to heavy taxation. What would the share of Mary¬ 
land be?. Shall I say a twelfth or fourteenth part of the 
whole sum required ? This would make Maryland’s share 
about three and a half or four millions of dollars over and 
above her State expenses, and that to be raised in the midst 
of war, convulsion and desolation. 

People of Baltimore !—People of Maryland !—You have 


An Addrefs to the 


16 

struggled hard to maintain the credit of the city of Balti¬ 
more, as well as of the State at large. In these efforts you 
have been most successful. If you leave the Union, what will 
become of the debt you owe, and of the plighted faith of 
, your city and State ? Can you pay that debt and redeem 
your honor, and maintain at the same time war-expenses in 
an unnatural contest? Clearly you cannot. If you go out 
of our Union, you go into insolvency and disgrace. 

No two States of the Union are more closely bound to each 
other by the ties of ancient friendship, intermarriages, inter¬ 
changes of residence, similarity of institutions, and' social, 
commercial and business relations, than Maryland and Vir¬ 
ginia. If Virginia stand firm by the Union she may rely 
upon it that Maryland will be found at her side to the last 
man and the last dollar. With some opportunity to form a 
correct judgment, I venture to say to you, that if Maryland 
take her stand by the Constitution and government our 
fathers gave us, for weal or for woe—Virginia will also be 
found at Iter side, sharing with her a common fortune and a 
common destiny. With the historic recollections which Vir¬ 
ginia so proudly cherishes, what else can she do, hut stand 
by the Union ? She is its mother. It is the child of her 
courage and her intellect. Washington, a son of her, led 
our infant armies in battle. Madison, another of her sons, 
led the somewhat unpractised statesmanship of our country 
in the deliberations of the convention which formed our Con¬ 
stitution. Marshall, another of her sons, presided long 
enough over the judiciary of the Country to lay deep the 
foundations of our national jurisprudence, and to leave behind 
him a name and a fame which rank him with the foremost 
jurists of the world. 

If Maryland and Virginia stand firm, so also will Ken¬ 
tucky, Virginia’s daughter. The brave heart and eloquent 
lips of Henry Clay lie buried in Kentucky’s soil. But his 
courage, his eloquence, his truth, his noble devotion to the 
Union of the States forever, have engraven themselves on the 


17 


People of Maryland. 

heart of Kentucky, never to be erased. And this day, the 
oldest intellectual child of Henry Clay, the brave and noble 
Crittenden, stands forth before the country, the Nestor of our 
Senate, and the acknowledged living representative of that 
deep seated love of country, which, thank God, still burns 
in the hearts of the great masses of our people. 

Tennessee also contains sacred ashes, intermixed, it is true, 
when in life, with many of the infirmities of our nature ; 
but true, absolutely and unflinchingly true in its lofty fidelity 
to the country. Neither the flash of' the sword, nor the roar of 
cannon, nor the threat of the rebel, ever startled his lofty soul 
from its high resolve, to maintain our Union and uphold 
our sacred flag, on every field, and in every contingency. 
With his sacred ashes resting in her soil—his form still 
familiar to her memory, and his burning words still ringing 
in her ears, can Tennessee abandon the Union ? Never ! 
Never ! unless 3 r ou tear away from her heart alljier memo¬ 
ries of Andrew Jackson. And North Carolina—Union-lov¬ 
ing. law-abiding, honest, faithful North Carolina—may we 
not count with certainty on her proving true to those patriotic 
instincts, for which she has ever been so dearly loved and 
so highly honored ! 

People of Maryland! pardon., I pray you pardon, a faith¬ 
ful son, and none the less so that he acknowledges a higher 
and holier allegiance to his country, if he has ventured in 
this address beyond the modest proprieties of his humble 
station. If he dared hope that any word of his would give 
fresh resolution to any loyal American heart, or revive in 
fresher colors that true strength of a country—the patriotic 
love of her people—that hope would cheer him now; and 
if it prove true, would be to him a blessing and a consolation 
to the latest moment of his life. 

WILLIAM H. COLLINS. 

Baltimore, December 20, 1860. 











Second Address 


PEOPLE OF MARYLAND. 


B Y 


WILLIAM H. COLLINS, 

OF BALTIMORE. 


THIRD EDITION, 


BALTIMORE: 



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Second Address 


TO THE 



WILLIAM H. COLLINS, 

n 


OF BALTIMORE. 


THIRD EDITION. 


BALTIMORE: 

PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG, 

114 WKST BALTIMORE STREET. 

1861 . 














$0 the ffeojrte of 


Will you listen if I speak to you of Loyalty, of Love of 
Country ? Terrible times have fallen to your lot. What¬ 
ever of manhood, of jorudence, of courage, of patriotism be¬ 
longs to you, now is the time to show it. The Union is in 
danger; your Country is near the throes of death—that 
Union and that Country which have been to you, for sev¬ 
enty years, one continued shower of blessings ; to which 
you have been accustomed to look from your childhood as 
the palladium of your safety, as the object of your dearest 
affections. State after State has seceded from the Govern¬ 
ment, refusing obedience to its laws, and attempting to form 
another Government independent of that of our Union. 

Under these painful circumstances it becomes you, People 
of Maryland, to trace out for yourselves the path to which 
duty, honor, loyalty and patriotism may point the way. 

In Maryland, as in much the larger part of our Country, 
it has ever been held that, to the extent of the powers given 
to the General Government by the People of the States at 
the adoption of our Constitution, that Government became 
a unit, and rightfully claims from us a direct allegiance ; 
that, to the extent of the powers so given, the People of the 
States, in whatever form they may choose to act, have parted 
forever with all the great powers given to the General Gov¬ 
ernment by the Constitution ; that the People of any one of 
the States, or the State itself whether acting by its Legisla¬ 
ture or Convention, have no more power over questions of 
war or peace, of ambassadors or treaties, of coining money 



4 


or establishing post-offices, of union or disunion, than has the 
General Government within a State over the distribution 
of the estates of intestates, or the forms of wills, or the de¬ 
scent of real estate ; that in each case the powers of the 
General Government and of the State Government are re¬ 
spectively supreme. 

People of Maryland, do you wish to break up your Gen¬ 
eral Government? Have you become weary of beholding 
the stars and the stripes , the emblems of your Nation’s glory? 
Will you desert your Country because others have proved 
false to their allegiance ? Is your patriotism so versatile 
that the long-cherished passion of your souls has suddenly 
perished ? Are you ready to draw the sword against your 
Country which, heretofore, you have drawn only in her de¬ 
fence ? 

What is patriotism ? From the beginning of nations, in 
all ages and countries, the patriot has ever been held in the 
highest veneration. The impulse under which he acts has 
ever been lauded by painters, sculptors, poets, historians, as 
the noblest that belongs to our riature—save and except only 
the sacred homage that binds us to our Father in heaven, 
and the mystic tie that connects us with humanity itself. 
Next to these, love of country is the highest and noblest 
feeling of which the human heart is susceptible. Higher 
and more sacred than the ties which bind the husband to his 
wife or the parent to his child, it stands forth, has stood 
forth, and will stand forth forever as the generous and noble 
passion of our souls. The more his Country is in danger, 
the dearer she becomes to the patriot. Are her ranks thin¬ 
ning ? The quicker is his step to take the place of the de¬ 
serter or the fallen. Is she poor? He lays of his wealth at 
her feet. Is his life demanded? He lays it down, has ever 
laid it down, and ever will lay it down freely at his country’s 
bidding, whether the altar for the sacrifice be at Thermo¬ 
pylae, or Bunker Hill, or Princeton, or Trenton, or Cowpens, 
or Yorktown. 


5 


Tell me not of serving our Country, or of standing by our 
Country as long as it is our interest to do so. The doc¬ 
trine is a libel on humanity. Unselfish love for our Country, 
not for the blessings she has bestowed or will bestow, but 
because she is our Country, because we delight to serve her, 
because like your children she is twined around your hearts, 
and it is happiness to labor for her welfare ; this, this is the 
love which has made, and I trust will make again and again, 
those grand and heroic men to whom history gives immor¬ 
tality. 

Notwithstanding I am fully aware and justly proud of the 
well-known fealty and loyalty of the People of Maryland to 
their State and National Governments, it seems to me that 
it may be profitable, in these days of rebellion and disunion, 
to recall to your view some general outline of the powers 
vested in those Governments respectively under which we 
have so long lived in prosperity and honor. 

The General Government as well as the Governments of 
the States, in their respective spheres, were intended by the 
Constitution to be immortal. The State of Maryland has no 
more right—either by her State-Convention or otherwise— 
to release you from your allegiance to the General Govern¬ 
ment, than has the General Government to release you from 
the duties you owe to the State of Maryland. Each has its 
separate orbit, and the one has no right to interfere with 
the other. If the State of Maryland should pass an ordi¬ 
nance of secession by a Convention called by her Legislature, 
or in any other way, and should attempt by such ordinance 
to interfere with, or supersede the allegiance you owe to the 
General Government, I say to you, People of Maryland, 
under all the responsibilities which may attend the declara¬ 
tion, that such an ordinance would be null and void. I re¬ 
peat, such an ordinance would be null and void, because it 
would be beyond the powers reserved to the States by the 
Constitution of the Union, and would be a direct interference 
with the powers granted by that Constitution to the General 
Government. A Convention of the People of a State is 


6 


limited, as to its powers, to the parceling out and providing 
for the exercise of the powers and rights reserved to the 
States. Over the powers granted to the General Govern¬ 
ment by the Constitution, a State-Convention has no power 
whatever. The Constitution of the United States is para¬ 
mount to the State-Convention. The State-Convention is 
subject to the Constitution of the United States. The State 
Legislature is subject, first, to the Constitution of the United 
States, and secondly, to the Constitution of the State. 

I desire to he understood. The Constitution of the United . 
States vests in the General Government, in perpetuity, all 
the high powers, rights, and functions granted to it, and 
specially enumerated in that sacred instrument. There can 
he no change in that Constitution, except by one of the ways 
pointed out in the fifth article thereof. By that article it is 
in substance provided, that two-thirds of both Houses of 
Congress can propose amendments to the Constitution ; or, 
at the application of two-thirds of the Legislatures of the 
States, it shall be the duty of Congress to call a Convention 
for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitu¬ 
tion ; which amendments, in either case, shall be valid, as 
parts of the Constitution to all intents and purposes, when 
ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the 
other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress. 

The powers of the General Government are such as the 
Constitution now gives, or may hereafter give to it, by either 
of the modes of amendment prescribed by the Constitution 
itself. These powers are sacred to the General Government. 
The States have parted with them forever. A State-Govern¬ 
ment, or a State-Convention has no more right to interfere 
with any of these powers so vested in the General Govern¬ 
ment, than it has to interfere with the powers of the 
British Parliament, or of the absolute sovereign of Bussia. 
The Constitution of the United States is paramount to the 
General Government, as well as to the Governments and 
Conventions of the States respectively. All Acts of Con- 


7 


gress passed in pursuance of its constitutional powers are 
declared, by the Constitution itself, to be “the supreme law 
of the land ; and the Judges in every State shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State 
to the contrary notwithstanding.” 

What, then, are the powers of a State-Convention, duly 
convened ? Such a Convention has absolute control over all 
the rights and powers reserved to the States ; that is to say, 
not granted by the Constitution to the General Government. 
Such a State-Convention can shape the State-Government in 
any form it pleases—provided it be republican—as to the 
apportionment and exercise of the powers so reserved to the 
States. This has usually been done by forming a State-Con¬ 
stitution. Such a State-Constitution usually provides that 
certain of the reserved powers shall not be interfered with 
by the State Legislature ; and vests the other reserved powers 
in such State-Legislative, Judicial and Executive Depart¬ 
ments as the State-Constitution provides. These State-Con¬ 
ventions and Constitutions have no more control over the 
powers and rights of the General Government, than over 
the powers and rights of Foreign Nations. 

Such, People of Maryland, I believe to be the true and 
plain statement of the powers and relations of the compli¬ 
cated machinery which constitutes our General and State 
Governments. 

First in order, and over and above all , is the Constitution 
of “The United States of America,” as it now exists, or as 
it may hereafter be amended in pursuance of provisions con¬ 
tained within itself. 

Second in order, is the Government of “The United States 
of America,” which, to the full extent of the powers con¬ 
ferred upon it by the Constitution, is over and above all 
State-Legislatures, or State-Conventions, or State Constitu¬ 
tions ; and is subject only, to the full extent of those powers 
and all laws passed in pursuance thereof, to the Constitution 
itself as it now is, or as it may hereafter be amended in 
pursuance of its own provisions. 


8 


Third in order are the State-Conventions when lawfully 
assembled. These State-Conventions have supreme power 
only over the rights reserved to the States ; that is to say, 
not granted by the Constitution to the General Government. 
These State-Conventions are clearly subject to the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, and to all acts of Congress passed 
pursuant thereto. 

Fourth in order are the State-Governments, consisting of 
their legislative, judicial, and executive departments ; all 
of which are clearly subject, first, to the Constitution of the 
United States ; secondly to the General Government to the 
full extent of its powers as vested in it by the Constitution ; 
and thirdly, to the Constitutions of the respective States. 

If these things be so, should there be a question with any 
faithful and loyal citizen of the United States, whether he 
will obey a Convention of his own State acting beyond its 
powers, or the General Government in the exercise of its 
constitutional functions ? Is not the very statement of the 
question its argument? 

To go a step further. A State cannot leave the Union, 
even by the consent of the General Government. Congress, 
or the President and Senate have no power to give such 
consent. The relations of the General Government to the 
several States, and of the several States to the General Gov¬ 
ernment are prescribed and fixed by the Constitution. No 
agreement or consent between a State and the General Gov¬ 
ernment can change these relations. Any such agreement 
would be in direct violation of the Constitution. That Con¬ 
stitution is paramount to the General Government, as well 
as to the State-Governments. The separation of a State 
from the General Government can only be legalized by an 
amendment to the Constitution, according to one of the ways 
pointed out in that instrument. 

Nor can the separation of a State from the General Gov¬ 
ernment be authorised by a treaty between them. No treaty 
can be made between the General Government and a State 
Government. Ambassadors, by force of the term, are high 


9 


agents, appointed by one sovereign power to separate and 
distinct nationalities. Their agreements are called treaties. 
Such treaties, by the grants of the Constitution, the United 
States lias power to make with another Government. But 
that Constitution expressly declares, that “no State shall 
enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation.” The 
powers of the General Government of the United States, as 
also of the Governments of the States, are fixed by the Con¬ 
stitution. The General Government has all the powers 
granted by that instrument. All powers not thereby granted 
to the General Government, nor prohibited to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively. The General Govern¬ 
ment and the State-Governments each, within its sphere, is 
supreme. Out of its sphere each is powerless, and its acts 
null and void. 

As correctives of any abuse of these respective powers we 
have the ballot-box, both State and National, the equality 
of all the States both great and small in the Senate, popu¬ 
lar representation in the House of Representatives and in 
the Executive, and a life-tenure on the part of the Judiciary, 
which has full power, in any case brought before it within 
the range of its jurisdiction, to redress any wrong committed 
against the humblest citizen. 

The General Government has no power to make war on a 
State. Why is this? It is because by the very nature of 
war the conqueror becomes absolute master of the conquered. 
He can give the conquered country suc]| laws and govern¬ 
ment, and dictate to it such terms as he pleases. But the 
General Government, by the Constitution, is prohibited from 
interfering with the powers reserved to the States. The 
General Government can neither take from, nor add to 
the powers of the States. Nor can she, as against or in 
favor of a State, take from or add to her own powers. There¬ 
fore it is that the General Government cannot make war on 
a State ; because, if successful, she would annihilate State- 
power through the high powers conferred by the laws of war 


10 


on the conqueror ; and that would he inconsistent with, and 
in violation of the Constitution. 

Nor can the General Government make war on the people 
of a State ; because by the laws of war, resistance made by 
the people of a Country, in defence of its nationality, has ever 
been held as noble and praiseworthy by generous conquer¬ 
ors ; whereas the levying of war against the United States, 
by the citizens of a State, is treason by the clear provisions 
of the Constitution. The converse of these propositions is 
equally true. A State, or the people thereof, cannot make 
war on the General Government. The rights, the relations, 
and the obligations of the States to the General Govern¬ 
ment, and of the General Government to the States, are 
fixed and settled by the Constitution. They can neither he 
increased, nor changed, nor varied by war, nor by treaty, 
nor otherwise, except by an amendment of the Constitution 
in one of the ways pointed out by it. This Constitution is 
the true higher law . It hinds alike the General Govern¬ 
ment, the several States, and the People thereof; and cannot 
he changed, or altered by nullification, secession, or rebellion 
on the part of a State ; nor by war or treaty between a State 
and the Government of the Union. 

But, People of Maryland, you have never denied, nor your 
Fathers before you, that the General Government possesses 
ample powers to enforce obedience to her laws. The very 
term Government implies these powers. They are innate , 
inherent , from the ^ature of things. They have been recog¬ 
nised and practiced from the beginning in the better and 
purer days of the Republic. The General Government has 
also, of necessity , the right and the power to defend her 
Forts, her Arsenals, her Custom-Houses, and to collect her 
revenues. These powers are also inherent. They too are in 
the nature of things. The Convention which framed the 
Constitution, and the People of the States who adopted it, 
no doubt intended to create, and did create thereby, a Gov¬ 
ernment able to sustain itself. 


11 


I do not deem it advisable, however, in the present con¬ 
dition of our Country, to discuss, in detail, the ways and 
means by which the General Government might, in case of 
dire extremity, uphold and maintain her authority. I trust 
that dire extremity will never come. The largest statesman¬ 
ship, the truest love for our whole Country, with a full share 
thereof for the disaffected part; the deepest horror and 
dread of fratricidal contests, patience, forbearance, concilia¬ 
tion, a willingness to listen to complaints, and a desire and 
resolution to redress them to the extreme verge of justice and 
equity ; a firm resolve to maintain the Union and the Con¬ 
stitution ; with a full knowledge that these will find their 
surest foundations when, without a strain, like a ship on the 
water, they rest on the affections of the People ; these are 
some of the qualities of that high and eminent statesman¬ 
ship which would be necessary for a wise and proper decision 
of these great questions of power, and prudence, and patriot¬ 
ism, in the event of the failure of all other means to sustain 
the Government. Long, long may it be before the American 
Statesman is called upon to decide these high and mighty 
questions. Should it be otherwise I humbly pray that he 
may bring to that decision a courage, a wisdom, a discretion, 
a patience and a patriotism equal to those of Washington 
himself. I have the greatest confidence that, with a tithe of 
these high qualities of statesmanship, the present difficulties 
of our Country can be settled, and our Union saved in all its 
brotherhood and glory and power. 

After our troubles are over, should another Anacharsis 
visit our Country—as did the first of that name, some twen¬ 
ty-four centuries ago, the States of Greece—for the purpose 
of carrying back to his native Scythia a knowledge of our 
institutions, our civilization, our manners, our customs, our 
commerce, our science, our agriculture and our military 
power, he should, first of all, study the frame-work of our 
National and State Governments, and take a clear view of 
the wondrous working of the Constitution as it holds the 
great Central Government firm in its place, whilst the State- 


12 


Governments revolve around it in their respective orbits 
without a jostle, controlled by the same mighty power. 

He might then be told that, less than four centuries ago, 
the existence of the American Continent was unknown to the 
civilizations of Europe and of Asia ; that the race which now 
owns and controls the vast area of the United States is an 
offshoot from Europe ; and under colonial forms of Govern¬ 
ment, in about a century and a half it reached a population 
of three millions ; that it separated from the parent stem 
less than a century since, and, under the workings of our 
General Government, the Nation thus formed has trebled its 
area, and increased by more than tenfold its population, 
power, commerce, productions and wealth; that soon a 
hundred millions of free and brave sons will repose in plenty 
and safety under the wings of this Great Central Govern¬ 
ment. 

When this great creation of our Fathers shall have been 
clearly comprehended, well might the noble Scythian ex¬ 
claim : I will visit your Niagara ; I will float on your great 
Inland Seas in the wooden palaces I have heard of, and which 
more than rival the wonders of Eastern story ; I will climb 
your Mountains, as they divide the water-sheds of your land, 
stretching from Ocean to Ocean ; I will trace your Rivers as 
they drain and fertilize your valleys, and afford path-ways 
for your commerce for thousands and tens of thousands of 
miles ; I will see with my own eyes your fields white with 
the bloom of the cotton, or yellow with their golden har¬ 
vests ; I will travel on your Rail-Roads and Canals ; I will 
visit your Cities and behold your monuments and your Capi¬ 
tol ; but I shall see nothing, I can see nothing equaling in 
colossal grandeur the' great intellectual creation which gave 
your General Government the powers of an Empire ; whilst 
your State-Governments, existing in smaller fragments, bring 
justice, and law, and government almost to the door of the 
citizen, and give him at the ballot-box control over their ad¬ 
ministration. These, People of America, are your true glory. 
As a friend of humanity, I pray you sustain your Govern- 


13 


ment; uphold your Constitution; maintain your allegiance; 
let Stars be added to your National Flag ; let one be struck 
from it, Never ! Never ! 

People of Maryland, I have tried to present to you a brief, 
but I trust a clear and accurate outline of the powers and 
relations of the National and State-Governments, under 
which we have lived in prosperity, honor, and freedom for 
more than seventy years. Of all the States of the Union, 
Maryland, from her location, has drunk freest and deepest 
from the great fountains of our National prosperity. The 
General Government has been to you as a shower of manna 
for seventy years. You have grown with its growth. Your 
wives, your children, your liberties and your institutions, 
have ever found a safe shelter under the wings of its eagle. 
Truly, u as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,’’ 
so has the National Government sheltered you. The Sons 
of Maryland have found service and gained honor and glory 
in the military, as well as in the civil departments of the 
Government. Your mechanics and artisans have found 
honest and well-rewarded employment in her noble and 
costly public works. Your commerce has been protected on 
every sea. For seventy years you have been cherished by 
her love, her care, her power as if she were, as in truth she 
is, your mother. Through her you are owners of a broad 
domain, stretching from Ocean to Ocean, and from Mexico 
to the frozen regions of Canada. All this is now your 
Country, and within its more than imperial limits you and 
your children and your children’s children, may find free 
and ample homes for ages and ages to come. 

If you are asked to abandon this imperial domain and 
withdraw your allegiance from the General Government, 
will you do it ? Have you any complaints to make of the 
General Government P Its course has ever been parental. 
You complain of your Sister States ! And will you abandon 
your allegiance to the General Government, because some of 
your Northern Sisters have passed laws unfriendly to your 
Institutions in violation of their constitutional duties, and 


14 


which laws are therefore void ; or because some of your 
Southern Sisters have passed ordinances of secession, in vio¬ 
lation of the same sacred instrument, and therefore equally 
void? I trust not; I pray not. Rely upon it the heart of 
the People of this great Country heats in tune to the 
music of the Union. If the Congress which is about to 
close its career shall fail, by a constitutional majority, to 
propose satisfactory amendments to the Constitution, do not 
be disheartened. That Congress—and it is with a blush for 
my Country that I say it—numbers man y politicians, and hut 
few statesmen. 

There is another mode of amending the Constitution. Let 
the Legislatures of the several States call on Congress to 
summon a Convention. Two-thirds of the State-Legisla¬ 
tures agreeing, Congress is hound to call it. A Convention 
fresh from the People would agree on amendments satisfac¬ 
tory to the Country. The People of the United States would 
look to this. They do not mean that this our Government 
is to he broken up ; and will therefore take care that fair 
concessions are offered by the one side, and accepted by the 
other. These amendments should be submitted to State- 
Conventions, and not to the State-Legislatures. The People 
will see to it that they are accepted by the constitutional 
majority of the States. Even the seceding States, tired as 
they will be of their unnatural position, will cast their votes 
for the amendments when they are assured that these votes 
will ensure their final adoption. What we need now is 
patience, forbearance, love of Country. Do not despair of 
the Republic. Stand firmly by your flag, your Government, 
your Country in this their hour of danger. If evil betide 
you, it will come whilst you are in the path of honor and 
duty. Abandon these, and you will at best become a de¬ 
fenceless member of a dwarfed Confederacy, full of nullifica¬ 
tion and secession—for of these it will have been born, and 
it will naturally partake of the qualities of its parents. 

For myself, I did not know how much I loved my Coun¬ 
try till I saw her in these her greatest perils. She has the 


15 


best, the truest, the most loyal affections of my soul. I love 
her the more for her misfortunes and dangers. I love her 
better than in my youth. In youth we love so many things 
as to prevent concentration of the affections. But, as we 
advance in life, our own future home, where we humbly hope 
to meet the loved-ones who have gone before us ; and the 
home here, to whose shelter we must commit the loved-ones 
we leave behind us and the race with which we are con¬ 
nected by the mysterious ties of nature, stand forth in bold 
relief, and challenge our highest and holiest thoughts. Like 
the Sibylline books these remaining objects of our love are 
the more dearly treasured for their diminished number. I 
am too old to change my allegiance. I could not have done 
so in the more impulsive days of my youth. Be that as it 
may, I have loved my country too long, too well, ever to 
renounce her. Were she to treat me unjustly, yea, even 
cruelly, I would sooner perish than do aught against her 
honor, her glory or her power. She would be my Country 
still. I would trust to her justice. If that justice failed to 
reach me whilst I live, I would still serve her to the utmost 
of my power, and trust that it would at last reach my hum¬ 
ble name, even in the grave. Come what may in the widest 
range of human events, I trust my arm, if ever raised against 
my Country, may fall shattered by my side, and that my 
tongue may be palsied if it ever attempt to give utterance 
to a thought, or a wish disloyal to her safety and honor. 

Taunt me not with being a submissionist. To lawful 
authority the loftiest spirit submits most loyally. No man 
was ever less noble for being submissive to the will and the 
laws of our Great Father in heaven ; or for being obedient, 
and faithful to the Constitution and laws of his Mother— 
the Country of his birth and his love. These are high 
duties, acknowledged alike by Jewish, Grecian, Roman, and 
Christian patriotism. When Socrates, more than twenty 
centuries ago, was condemned to death by an unjust and un¬ 
grateful Country, his friends arranged for his escape. He 
refused his proffered liberty and life ; and placed that refu- 


16 


sal on an obedience to the laws of his country so high and 
lofty as to challenge, in all ages and countries, the approval 
of the humblest, as well as of the loftiest minds. “Are you 
ignorant that your Country is more considerable, and more 
worthy of respect and veneration before God and man, than 
your father, mother, and all your relations together? That 
you ought to honor your Country, yield to it, and humor it, 
more than an angry father? That you must either reclaim 
it by your counsel, or obey its injunctions, and suffer with¬ 
out a murmur all that it imposes upon you ? If it order 
you to be” “laid in irons, if it sends you to the wars, there 
to spend your blood, you ought to do it without demurring. 
You must not shake off the yoke, or flinch, or quit your 
post; but in the army, in prison, and everywhere else, ought 
equally to obey the orders of your Country. For if offering 
violence to a father or a mother is a piece of grand impiety, 
to put a force upon one’s Country is a much greater.” Such 
is the lesson of patriotism taught by the wisest and noblest 
son of Greece. For more than twenty centuries it has re¬ 
ceived the plaudits of the wise, the good, the true and the 
brave ; and I must be pardoned if I refuse to change it for 
the teachings of the modern school of “nullification, seces¬ 
sion, disunion and rebellion.” 

People of Maryland ! I asked you to listen if I spoke to 
you of Loyalty, of Love of Country. I pray your forgive¬ 
ness if my words have proved false to the impulses of my 
heart, and have flowed in a strain unequal to the high 
themes of which I have spoken. Would to God the power 
were given me to discuss these high questions with an elo¬ 
quence as lofty as themselves. They do not concern your 
wealth, or your safety, or your industry ; though I believe 
these interests lie in the same direction that your higher and 
holier duties point out. But whether that be so or not my 
purpose was to point you to the path of duty, of honor, of 
loyalty, of love of Country, in the full belief that it will lead 
you to glory and honor which, to a People, are worth more 
than all the untold treasures of the golden rocks of Cali¬ 
fornia. 


17 


The true need of our Country is more of faithful sons. 
People of Maryland, come to her rescue. Lay upon her 
altars your “lives, your fortunes, your sacred honor.” I 
trust it will not be long before the restored brotherhood and 
revived patriotism of our people will bring back harmony to 
our Federal and State-Governments ; when the American, 
offering to his brother—no matter whence they come or 
where they meet—the right-hand of fellowship, of conces¬ 
sion, of kindness, and of peace, will reserve his sword and 
his courage for the enemies of his Country ; when we shall 
once more, as a People, acknowledge the duties of loyalty, 
of love of Country. This blessed time I think I see in the 
distance. “The North will give up; the South will not 
keep hack.” Even South Carolina will return to her true 
resting-place in the arms of the Union ; ready again to 
answer, if need be, at the call of a Northern commander, 
and with a son as brave and true as he who fell on the plains 
of Mexico, “Lead on; South Carolina will follow you to the 
death.” 

When this blessed day shall have arrived, as arrive it 
surely will, thirty millions of People will shout with one 
united voice : Thanks, thanks to the Great Father of us all, 
our Brotherhood is restored, our Country is saved, our Peo¬ 
ple united, our Constitution and Government maintained. 

WILLIAM H. COLLINS. 

Baltimore, February 23, 1861. 













PEOPLE OF MARYLAND. 


SECOND EDITION. 



THIKD A1)DKP;SS 


TO TIB 


BY 


WILLIAM H. COLLINS, 


OF BALTIMORE. 



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THIRD ADDRESS 


TO THE 


PEOPLE OF MARYLAND. 


WILLIAM H. COLLINS, 


OF BALTIMORE. 


SECOND EDITION. 


BALTIMORE: 

PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG, 

114 WEST BALTIMORE STREET. 

1861. 





I 


ft 


Amidst all the troubles which surround us, it has been to 
me most fortunate that the paramount allegiance I owe to 
my country has been perfectly consistent with the loyal 
attachment I have ever felt for the State of Maryland. Her 
interests and honor, I believe, are firmly bound up in the 
Union. If that Union be broken, either on the Potomac or 
on Mason and Dixon’s line, Maryland will receive a heavy 
blow. To part her from her sisters of the South is to para¬ 
lyze her left side ; whilst to separate her from her sisters of 
the North is to paralyze the right. Maryland is still in the 
Union. I believe her only safety is to be found in its per¬ 
petuity. 

It. is often said that the boundaries of governments are 
fixed and controlled by advantages of trade and commerce; 
that commercial jDrosperity is the first thing to be secured 
in settling the boundaries of a people. There is, however, 
another question which rises high above commercial advan¬ 
tages. Security is the master-principle. No State can at¬ 
tain high and permanent prosperity unless her boundaries 
are defensible by her sons ; whilst her women and children, 
her aged and infirm, are safe around their hearths, and her 
operatives free from interference with their industrial pur¬ 
suits. Liability to the occupation of the enemy during war, 
is fatal to any State. It will break down the spirit of a peo¬ 
ple. It exposes the women and children, the old and the 
infirm, to a series of insults and wrongs, at the mere contem¬ 
plation of which the heart sickens. No race can maintain 



4 


its vigor unless its borders be defensible by the courage of 
its sons. 

What would England be but for her ocean girth? What 
else defended her from the legions of Napoleon the Great? 
What else secures her now from the armies of the nephew, 
scarcely less great and powerful than the uncle? Her belt 
of sea and her command of the ocean, have kept the 
homes, the agriculture, the manufactures, the trade of Eng¬ 
land, free from the injuries and insults of a foreign foe for 
hundreds of years. What would Switzerland be but for her 
mountain barriers? The Alps long sustained the decaying 
grandeur of Rome. Nice and Savoy have recently fallen to 
France for reasons of military strategy. They lie on the 
French slant of the Alps. The boundary of the Rhine is at 
this moment the subject of daily anxious thought by the 
Emperor. No one knows better than he, how much that 
boundary would add to the security and grandeur of 
France. The longing gaze of Russia on Constantinople, 
ever since the days of Peter the Great, reveals the security 
she would feel from the possession of the Straits of the Dar¬ 
danelles, and the consequent exclusive possession of the seas 
of Marmora and the Euxine. 

No nation ever had such boundaries as the United States. 
Oceans separate her from the vigorous civilizations of Eu¬ 
rope on the East, and the decaying nations of Asia on the 
West, for thousands of miles. The Gulf of Mexico and the 
Rio Grande on the South, divide her from the feeble govern¬ 
ment of Mexico ; whilst the Lakes and the St. Lawrence 
separate her from Canada on the North; which though in 
many respects a fine country, can never prove our equal in 
power. Give us but internal peace, and the plough, the 
loom, and the anvil, may pursue their busy course, and our 
firesides for centuries to come will be free from the pollution 
of an invading foe. With free trade amongst ourselves, and 
abundant supplies of food, cotton, tobacco, coal, iron, tim¬ 
ber, and manufactures for other countries, our trade with 


5 


the nations of the world will lay them almost under a neces¬ 
sity to maintain with us the most friendly relations. 

Such, People of Maryland, is the rich heritage you received 
from your ancestors. Efforts are now being made to divide 
this more than imperial domain. As a loyal son of my 
Country, I claim to lift my voice against the profanation. I 
speak in the interests of no party. I acknowledge no party 
allegiance. I am for the whole country from Ocean to Ocean 
—from the Gulf of Mexico to the Lakes. I love it all. I 
seek the welfare and honor of the whole. It is all my Coun¬ 
try. Its glory is in union ; its dishonor is in separation. 

If, in some mad hour, whilst patriotism is drunk with 
the fumes of passion, a division should be proposed, where 
will you draw the line? If you consult the courses of 
streams and mountains, and a division must he had, it 
would naturally he into three parts. One, the great Valley of 
the Mississippi ; stretches from the Allegheny to the Rocky 
Mountains ; and from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and 
the Rio Grande. Nature says this whole region must be¬ 
long to one power, either by agreement or war. Another, 
the Atlantic slant, stretching from the Alleghenies to the 
Ocean, includes the North-Eastern States and a large pari 
of Florida. This region is substantially the same as the 
old thirteen States of our Union. The other, the Pacific 
slant, stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Ocean. 

If a separation must take place these divisions would he 
in accordance with natural boundaries and the necessities of 
• strategic defence. Rut the Pacific slant does not wish to 
separate from the others. The great Valley of the Missis¬ 
sippi, which is bound together by common interests, and 
boundaries, and rivers, and outlets, can never belong to two 
nations. The owners of the streams above must have a 
common property with the owners of the lower part of that 
Valley in its noble outlet, and the shores of the great Gulf 
into which it flows. Treaties, conventions, agreements, are 
abrogated by war. The rich fields and prairies of the upper 


6 


part of that great Valley, and the teeming alluvial plains of 
its lower part, must belong to one and the same government. 

He who shaped the world, and gave it its slants, and drains, 
and outlets, has left stamped on the natural features of this 
noble region His irrevocable decree, that one nation must 
own it, either by agreement or conquest. 

The Atlantic slant, including the Hew England States 
and the larger part of Florida, if it must, in some evil hour, 
separate from the great Valley of the Mississippi, would 
seem to be united by common interests in one government. 
Should a separation, however, take place in that slant, it 
seems to me there are reasons of the most imperative kind 
which would include in the northern part the whole of the 
waters of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Before stating my reasons for this opinion, and to bring 
the question nearer to the practical issues of the present day, 
it is proper to say, that in the division of our country now 
sought to be made, it is proposed to ignore the boundaries 
imposed by nature, and to divide on artificial lines, depen¬ 
dent on the shifting accident of the peculiar kinds of labor 
used in different parts of the country. It is as if the wood¬ 
man should try to split rails against the grain and not 
with it. 

If, however, a line of separation is to be drawn on the At¬ 
lantic slant, where shall it run? I have already intimated 
that the Chesapeake Bay, and the streams emptying into it, 
together with the lands which they pierce and fertilize, will, 
for reasons stronger than human power, remain with the # 
northern part of our Country. If I read the map aright, 
Nature has so willed it. 

It is deemed conclusive that, in the event of separation, 
the northern part of the Country will be the maritime power. 

He who doubts this would scarcely be trusted by the strong 
common sense of the American people. If any thing in the 
future can be foretold, this would seem to be certain. Let 
the men of business, the thinkers, the statesmen of our 
Country, ponder this proposition well. Much depends on it. 


7 


To my apprehension it is as certain as any proposition can 
be which deals with the future. 

Some twenty miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake 
lies the Hampton Roads, one of the noblest harbors of the 
world. Large enough to float in security the navies of the 
earth, its mouth is narrow though of easy access. Fort¬ 
ress Monroe completely guards its entrance, and renders the 
harbor safe in war from an enemy. To the maritime power 
of our country that harbor, as a refuge from the tempest or 
the enemy, is of untold value. From the port of New York, 
and along the southern coast around the peninsula of Flori¬ 
da, no such harbor exists for the thousands of northern ships 
engaged in commerce with the Gulf of Mexico, or with 
South America, or around Cape Horn, or with the West 
Indies. In peace and in war, Fortress Monroe is to the 
northern part of our Country more precious than Gibraltar 
is to England. When England agrees to give up Gibraltar, 
then, and not till then, will the United States agree to sur¬ 
render Fortress Monroe and Hampton Roads. 

But the possession of the Hampton Roads involves abso¬ 
lute control over the commerce of Norfolk and Portsmouth, 
as also of the James River which empties into those roads 
south of Fortress Monroe. Will Virginia ever agree that 
the great harbor at the mouth of her noblest river, command¬ 
ing the commerce of Richmond and Petersburg, as also of 
her great commercial emporium, Norfolk, shall belong to a 
foreign power ? She cannot. She will not. It would be her 
utter ruin. Will the North ever agree to part with this no¬ 
ble harbor, so necessary to her commerce, and with the fort¬ 
ress which commands it ? Never ! Never ! 

The question then is, can Virginia, with the aid of her 
southern allies, take Fortress Monroe? If the South had a 
navy stronger than that of the North, she might take it. 
But so long as the North is the maritime power, I suppose 
this fortress to be impregnable. Its garrison, if need be, 
can be relieved by fresh troops daily, its sick and wounded 
removed, its wants supplied even to the most minute, with- 


8 


out any possible interference by any troops on the land. I 
say nothing of the Rip Raps ; though that fort, if finished, 
as it can easily be, would add greatly to the command of the 
harbor, as also to the security of Fortress Monroe. 

Here then is the state of the question. Virginia must 
have the control of the mouth of the Hampton Roads. It is 
indispensable to her. Under our Union, it has been guarded 
and defended by the General Government, for the uses of 
Virginia, as also of all the States of the Union. The North 
cannot part with it. Virginia cannot part with it. The 
result is of necessity. Virginia and the Northern States 
must belong to one government, as they have done from the 
early colonial days. 

I have spoken of the Hampton Roads as they concern the 
Country at large, and the State of Virginia in particular. 
As a citizen of Maryland, I have also a word to say. The 
State of Maryland, and especially the City of Baltimore, 
has an interest in the Hampton Roads, scarcely inferior to 
the State of Virginia herself. It is our outlying harbor, on 
our way to and from the sea. Its sheltering bosom floats 
annually, millions of our commerce, and thousands of our 
sailors. Maryland can never agree, under any circum¬ 
stances, that her right to use this harbor shall depend on 
any other tenure than its ownership by the Country to which 
she belongs. The fight to use this harbor in peace and war, 
is one of the noble blessings conferred by the Union on the 
State of Maryland. This right she can never surrender. 

The great Valley of the Susquehanna empties its waters 
into the Chesapeake Bay, and affords to that part of the 
State of Pennsylvania its cheapest and safest outlet for her 
lumber, her iron, her coal, and a multitude of other heavy 
articles of commerce. These now mainly stop at ports of the 
Chesapeake, either for local use, or trans-shipment to the 
ports of the world. The interests of the Valley of the Sus¬ 
quehanna, in the free use, in peace and war, of the Hamp¬ 
ton Roads, though not so great as those of Maryland and 


9 


Virginia, must nevertheless be lucked to in the settlement of 
new boundaries, as now proposed. 

It is perfectly certain that the great State of Pennsylvania 
utterly repudiates even a suggestion of a separation by her 
from the Union. She is at this moment calling into vigor¬ 
ous effort her great military power to preserve the Union of 
all the States. She proposes, and will agree, to no division 
whatever. 

Recent events have shown the utter impossibility of de¬ 
fending Maryland against the northern part of our Country. 
The South cannot do it—not from any want of courage or 
conduct in the field—but for reasons beyond her control. 
The North, in command of the waters of the Chesapeake 
Bay, could at the same time plant her columns at Annapo¬ 
lis, or land them on the waters of the Patuxent, or on the 
lower borders of the Potomac, in numberless places, or march 
them by land to Cumberland, or Plagerstown, or Emmits- 
burg, or at the Maryland line where the Northern Central 
Railroad passes into Pennsylvania, or at various points on 
the Northern borders of Harford county. The Western 
Shore of Maryland is too small, and too deficient in strate¬ 
gic points, to allow for the dejjloying of large armies within 
her borders. If united with the South, she must he, by the 
ordination of nature, subject to the occupation of the North, 
in any contest it might wage with the South. Liability to 
such occupation must check the course of trade, of agricul¬ 
ture and commerce. Capital is proverbially timid. When 
the City of Baltimore belongs to a government that cannot 
defend her in war, she may bid farewell to those hopes of 
future greatness which her sons have fondly cherished. 

People of the Eastern Shore, have any of your sons fairly 
and frankly told you your helpless condition in the event of 
a separation by Maryland from the North on Mason and 
Dixon’s line? The home of my ancestors was amongst you. 
My early thoughts and affections first took root and form on 
your venerated soil. My earliest memories are of your suns 
rising from the Atlantic and setting in the Chesapeake. 


10 


The rustle of your autumn leaves still lingers on my ear ; 
and my eyes see, as of yesterday, your woods adorned by a 
variety and splendor of foliage equalled no where else. The 
waters of the Pocomoke, where my ancestors, for many ge¬ 
nerations, dwelt on its lower banks, still flow by the grave 
of one, to whose self-denial and affection, I owe most that I 
deem valuable in life; and of another, loved and honored, 
who stood in the place of the father, of whom the infant 
memory of the orphan failed to record a trace. The Mono¬ 
kin, on whose well remembered stream I took in the rudi¬ 
ments of knowledge, and those still holier lessons of truth 
and honor, gathered from the lips of a pure and noble Mo¬ 
ther ; the Wicomico, scarcely less familiar or less dear, the 
scene of many happy hours which did much towards shap¬ 
ing and controlling the current of my maturer thoughts, 
flow now, as then. These, and the kindred, and friends, 
and people, who inhabited their banks, are still sacred in 
the memories of the gray-haired man, as they were in the 
fresher days of his youth. People of the Eastern Shore, one 
at least of your sons, who though long parted from you, 
loves you most dearly, claims the right to tell you in plain 
language, the dangers that lie in wait if you leave the shel¬ 
tering wing of the Union. 

If war takes place between the North and the South what 
could you do? The North in command of the Chesapeake, 
could you come to the aid of your brethren of the Western 
Shore, or they go to you? The South could give you no 
protection. She could not get to you. If twenty or thirty 
thousand men were to march upon you from the open pass 
at the head of the Peninsula what would be your fate? Con¬ 
quered, subdued, the foot of the victor planted on your necks, 
none the more gently because you had renounced the Gov¬ 
ernment under which you had been happy, and whose sway 
was so gentle that you knew it only by its blessings. 

People of the Eastern Shore, I speak to you frankly. 
Many of you are the children of the friends of my youth. 
Some of you are of my own kith and kin. I have no politi- 


11 


cal aspirations. If I had, I trust there is manhood enough 
about me to spurn their gratification, except in the paths of 
truth and candor. I speak to you fearlessly but loyally, when 
I say that separation from the Union on Mason and Dixon’s 
line is, to you, destruction. It is to assume a position you 
cannot maintain. The very Institution which would lead 
you to separation, would perish at once under the heel of the 
victor ; and you would receive such institutions as might in 
generosity be dealt out to you. If it were offered to you to¬ 
day, at your own free choice, and without question, to join a 
Southern Confederacy, with your northern border resting on 
Pennsylvania and Delaware, and you were to accept that 
offer, I say to you that the first war which might afterwards 
spring up with the North, would lead to your subjugation. 
The logic of events is irresistible. It is but another name 
for the unchangeable relation of cause and effect. Woe be¬ 
tide that man or that people who ventures to fly in the face of 
the decrees of Nature. 

It is not for me to speak to the two Eastern Shore Counties 
of Virginia; and yet it would seem to be clear that the sepa¬ 
ration of Virginia from the Union would end, and must end, 
in the separation of those two Counties from Virginia. 
Their destination, in that event, I do not choose to prophesy, 
though it would appear to be indicated by signs too clear to 
be mistaken. 

The Peninsula, composed of Delaware, the Eastern Shore 
of Maryland, and the two Eastern Shore Counties of Vir¬ 
ginia, lying between the Chesapeake and the Delaware River 
and Bay and the Atlantic, with an open mouth binding on 
Pennsylvania, and pierced in every direction by navigable 
streams and estuaries, cannot be defended by any Southern 
Confederacy. Situated between the two great Cities, Phil¬ 
adelphia and Baltimore, that Peninsula has the choice of 
the two markets of those commercial emporiums, whilst it 
belongs to our common Country. Divide that Country, and 
under laws of Nature higher than human laws, and stronger 
than human power, that region must cast its fortunes with 


% 


12 


that part of the Union which can protect it in war, and to 
which in peace it would have to look for commerce and 
trade. Such are my firm and deep-rooted convictions, and 
in all the truth and candor of my soul I lay them before 
the people of the other Shore, as the offerings of a faithful 
son. 

If I err not in the preceding positions, the conclusion 
would seem to he inevitable, that whatever may he the final 
result of the contest now unfortunately agitating our Coun¬ 
try to its foundations, the States of Virginia, Maryland, 
Delaware, and Pennsylvania, are hound together by ties so 
strong that separation between them is impossible; and that 
should a new government he formed in the South in conse¬ 
quence of the present, or any future conflict, those States, 
in the end, will stand by the Union, and by each other. 
Without the command of the Hampton Roads, the com¬ 
merce and maritime power of the North would be seriously 
crippled; without the free use of the Hampton Roads in 
peace and war, Virginia and Maryland would be crushed, 
and Pennsylvania seriously injured. Even if Pennsylvania 
were willing to yield those Roads, the northern border of 
Mason and Dixon’s line, if separating her from another na¬ 
tionality, would be to Maryland an indefensible border, in¬ 
volving her in all the horrors of military occupation by the 
enemy during any war which the South might wage with 
the North ; and, perhaps, in subjugation in the end. 

Where then can you draw a dividing line through the 
territory of the United States, from East to West? I an¬ 
swer, No where. If our Country ever finally separates, the 
dividing line can only run from North to South. Such I 
believe to be the ordination of Nature. Fortunately this 
division is not sought by any part of our Country. If it 
were, I should regard the crisis as infinitely more appalling. 
The struggle then would be to do that which, though un¬ 
wise, would not be inconsistent with the laws of Nature, as 
indicated by the courses of our mountains and streams. The 
effort now being made, is to divide us on some line, not only 


s 


13 


without strategic points, but in violation of them ; dependent 
for its course, as to whether the dwelling of the laborer is 
now occupied by the Anglo-Saxon, or by the African race ; 
utterly forgetful of the fact, that the productions of each re¬ 
gion are for the supply of the wants of the other ; and that 
mutual wants and the power of mutual supply, constitute 
one of the strongest ligaments to hind a people together. 
This I trust is as impossible as it is unwise and suicidal. 

It may perhaps he well to ask, Why is it that any part of 
our Country seeks a division of the Union ? That Union was 
once sacred in the eyes of the whole American people. To 
the eye of the true statesman it never was more important 
to the whole Country than now. Why then seek to dis¬ 
solve it? 

But for the institution of slavery in some of the States, we 
would now be a united and happy people. And yet it can¬ 
not he denied, that this institution existed when the govern¬ 
ment was formed, and that the jieople of all the States agreed 
to constitute a common government, notwithstanding the 
existence of this peculiar institution. As in marriage, they 
agreed to take each other for better and for worse, with a full 
knowledge of the existence of the institution now the subject 
of difficulty and contention. Is it fair, is it honorable then, 
to charge upon the South the evils of an institution, the ex¬ 
istence of which the North knew when the government was 
formed, and notwithstanding which the government was ac¬ 
tually formed, and the Constitution adopted by all the States 
of the Union? 

To this question, the only answer attempted by those who 
seek to re-open the terms of the Constitution, and to make 
war upon the institutions of a part of the country which ex¬ 
isted at the formation of the government, and which are re¬ 
cognized as so existing by the Constitution itself, has assumed 
the form of the “ Higher Law.” If this term means any 
thing, it is that the system of slavery was criminal at the 
time the government was formed, should have been then 
abolished, and that the Constitution of the United States is, 


14 


on this subject, null and void, because it recognizes the ex¬ 
istence of an institution which is at war with the high and 
pure doctrines of Christianity, and also with the highest 
and soundest generalizations of the human intellect on the 
relations which men sustain to each other. 

Accordingly, the ownership of slaves has been made the 
test of Church membership in some of our largest ecclesias¬ 
tical bodies. Works of fiction have been written with much 
of the grace and glow of eloquence, for the purpose of hold¬ 
ing up the institution to the contempt and hatred of the good 
every where ; and the most wanton abuse has been heaped by 
one section of the Country upon the other. 

Asa consequence of this violent course on the one side, the 
opinions of the part of the Country where this institution ex¬ 
ists, have undergone very serious changes, and it has there 
been held by many to be an institution based upon the high¬ 
est moral and religious elements of our nature, and worthy 
to be encouraged and propagated, side by side, with the re¬ 
lations of husband and wife, parent and child. 

It is respectfully submitted, that both sections of the coun¬ 
try have, on this subject, fallen into grave error ; and that a 
clear comprehension of that error would do much towards 
restoring our brotherhood and union. The North errs in 
supposing that Christianity undertakes to interfere with, or 
establish, or alter, the forms of government, or the political 
institutions where it may be introduced. This, I apprehend, 
is not its mission. That it may in the end produce whole¬ 
some ameliorations and changes in the political institutions 
of a Country, by means of the elevating and refining influ¬ 
ences it exerts on individual character, is most true. Except 
however as it works its noiseless way in the human soul, by 
purifying and ennobling its thoughts and emotions, Christi¬ 
anity does not prescribe any special form of government, or 
any particular set of political institutions. It enters alike 
the palace of the absolute sovereign, and the cottage of the 
humble laborer ; the mansion of the popular president, and 


15 


the dwelling of the citizen ; the princely halls of the master, 
and the humble cabin of the slave. In all these Christianity 
is equally at home ; to all she whispers the same lessons ; 
she bids each in his separate political sphere, whatever it may 
he, to purify and elevate his soul, and to accept with un¬ 
doubting loyalty her pure, hut simple teachings. The em¬ 
peror and the laborer, the president and the citizen, the 
master and the slave, when brought under her holy and 
sublime teachings, each learns a lesson which makes him 
better fitted for the political duties to which the place as¬ 
signed him by the laws may call him. Christianity neither 
prohibits nor sanctions slavery ; but prescribes to both mas¬ 
ter and slave, if such there be, the respective duties assigned 
to their state. 

The political institutions of different Countries may widely 
differ, and yet each be best adapted to the moral, intellectual 
and physical development of its own people. To the mere 
abstract thinker, it may be equally difficult to reconcile with 
the dictates of reason and justice, a hereditary peerage, with 
high legislative powers dependent on the mere accident of 
birth ; or the transmission by law of the whole of a vast 
landed estate to the eldest son, to the exclusion of a dozen 
others, his equals, or perhaps superiors, in all manly and 
noble qualities ; or a hereditary throne, perpetuated by 
marriages in foreign Countries^resulting of necessity in a 
line of sovereigns of a different; race from that of the people 
they are born to govern ; or the subjection of a race to the 
condition of domestic slavery, because of the color of its skin, 
and its comparatively recent descent from savage African an¬ 
cestors. All these things may present equal difficulties in 
the field of mere abstract thought; and yet the Englishman, 
as well as the American, might well stand aghast at any in¬ 
terference by rude and unfamiliar hands, with their peculiar 
institutions, interwoven as they are with the entire workings 
of their respective political systems. 

If slavery did not exist in our Country, its introduction 


16 


would be a calamity as well as a crime. It was a great but 
a necessary sacrifice when the framers of our Constitution 
consented to the continuance of the African slave-trade for 
twenty years. The formation of the Government depended 
on that sacrifice, and it was made. Other concessions were 
also made in framing the Constitution, and rightfully made; 
because slavery was an existing institution, and had to be 
provided for. Let those provisions stand. Leave the mas¬ 
ter and the slave to work out their own destiny, under those 
kindly and affectionate relations which exist between them 
in numberless cases, to the equal honor of both. This, in 
my judgment, is the course approved by sound reason and 
an enlightened Christianity. It would be the crime of the 
age to break in upon this relation, as it exists in our Country, 
by any interference from without the States where it exists. 
Let the Southern man alone; do not anger him by unwar¬ 
ranted interference or abuse; and the North may be assured 
that, under the kindly sympathies of our nature, the South 
will ponder long and patiently over the ultimate means of 
disposing of a relation which, though a necessity in many 
places now, may, in the progress of events, cease to be so ; 
and the removal of which by his own free act, at some future 
time, may take from olf the heart of the master a load 
heavier than that which rests on the slave. 

With profound diffidence, and yet impelled by a passion¬ 
ate love for my country—its honor and glory—I desire, Peo¬ 
ple of Maryland—People of the United States—if I may 
dare address so imperial an audience—to lay before you the 
thoughts of a loyal son, as to the way of removing the dif¬ 
ficulties under which the Country now labors ; and which 
will surely end her career, unless this young nation, rising 
with lion-heart, resolves to defend the Union at all hazards, 
and to all extremities. Honor, patriotism, manhood, in¬ 
voke this high resolve. Such I understand to be the Na¬ 
tional will. I share it. In the inmost depths of my soul, 
and with its most passionate impulses, I share it. I would 


17 


sooner dishonor my Mother’s grave, or my Father’s ashes, 
than raise my hand or my voice against the Union. Let it 
stand—let it stand—with ever-increasing grandeur and glo- 
ry, till the sun shall cease to gild the East with his morning 
rays, or to paint with golden pencil the evening clouds of 
the West. 

If the South were asked whether she is willing to continue 
in the Union on any terms, what would be her answer? If 
that answer he, No, then it is for the manhood of the 
faithful sons of the Country to maintain, against all comers, 
the National Flag and the National Union. It is lawful, it 
is honorable, to strike even a brother if it be in defence of 
a mother. Utterly as I abhor civil war, I abhor disunion 
more. To divide our imperial domain for the sake of peace, 
would be a national weakness. It would be to shed rivers 
of blood in the future to save rivulets now. So long as the 
answer of the South to the question proposed is, No, the 
arbitrament of arms can only solve the issue. 

But if our brethren of the South—for I still regard and 
love them as such—in answer to the question will say, Yes, 
then the whole phase is changed. That answer would 
be received with tears and embraces. The heart of the 
Country would again beat in its old healthful tone, and the 
cry of the Nation would be, Let a Convention be called in 
conformity with the provisions of the Constitution. Let the 
best and wisest national men be elected as members of that 
august council, and let such amendments be proposed for 
the sanction of the States of the Union as will bind our 
people once more in the enduring bonds of brotherhood and 
peace. 

Various propositions have been made, based upon such 
amendments of the Constitution as would be satisfactory to 
the Country. And yet it has seemed to me that deeper cautery 
is needed to cure the national ulcer at its root. May I then 
humbly venture to indicate amendments to the Constitution 


2 


18 


which, I suppose, are called for by the exigency of the 
times. 

First .—A declaratory amendment, that in all future con¬ 
structions of the Constitution, it shall be held that the Union 
of the States thereunder is, and shall be perpetual ; and can 
and shall he sustained and upheld by. the Government of the 
United States, all ordinances of any State Legislature, or of 
any State Convention to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Second .—An express declaration, that in all future con¬ 
structions of the Constitution, Congress shall have full pow¬ 
er, either by a tariff on imports, or by excise laws, or by 
direct taxes, or by any one or more, or all of these modes, 
to raise whatever money may be required by the government; 
and that in apportioning the duties on imports, Congress 
may, in its sound discretion, take into view such protection 
to American industry as it may deem wise and proper. 

Third .—An amendment, prohibiting the acquisition of 
any more territory by the United States, except by the con¬ 
sent of nineteen-twentieths of all the Senators of the United 
States. 

Fourth .—An amendment, prohibiting the importation of 
slaves from the Coast of Africa, or from any foreign country. 

Fifth .—All the territories of the United States, now or 
hereafter owned, to be open to the introduction of slaves from 
any of the United States, or the territories thereof, and to be 
there held, so long as the same shall remain a territory ; and 
that when said territory shall be admitted as a State, it shall 
be with or without slavery, as its constitution may provide. 

Sixth .—Absolute non-interference by Congress with the 
system of slavery in any State, in which the same may be 
established by the laws thereof. 

Seventh .—Absolute non-interference with slavery by the 
United States, in all the arsenals, dock-yards and forts 
thereof, located within the limits of any State, so long as 
slavery shall exist in such State by the laws thereof. 

Eighth .—An absolute prohibition of the abolition, by the 


19 


Government of the United States, of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, so long as any State of the Union shall permit 
slavery therein. 

Ninth .—Congress shall pass no law regulating or prohi¬ 
biting the carrying of slaves from one slave State to another 
slave State; but that the same shall he subject only to the 
laws of the respective States from and to which such carry¬ 
ing shall take place. 

Tenth .—An amendment, carefully drawn, by which the 
whole duty of delivering up persons “held to service or 
labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another,” shall be imposed on the Government of the Unit¬ 
ed States; and containing an absolute prohibition of any 
State-interference with the subject; the delivery of such 
person or persons to be made by the United States in the 
State from which such person or persons escaped, with pro¬ 
vision for the trial in said last named State, in due course of 
law, by the courts of the United States, in case the facts 
upon which the proceeding is based are denied by such per¬ 
son or persons. If the officer of the United States charged 
with making the arrest or delivery of such person or per¬ 
sons, he prevented from doing so by any person or persons 
whatever, he shall return such fact to the United States’ 
Court of the State where such resistance shall have been 
made, and it shall be the duty of said Court to pass an or¬ 
der directing the treasurer of the United States to pay the 
full value of said person or persons so claimed to be held to 
labor to the owner thereof, and all costs of Court and twen¬ 
ty-five per cent, additional for contingent expenses; and it 
shall he the duty of such treasurer to pay the same on de¬ 
mand; the said amount to be retained by the United States, 
together with six per cent, interest thereon from the time of 
payment, out of any monies that may thereafter be payable 
by the United States to the State in which the officer of the 
United States may have been prevented from making the 
arrest, or delivery as aforesaid. 


20 


Eleventh .—An amendment should he made, cutting up by 
the roots the doctrine of political proscription, and the con¬ 
sequent scramble for office, which have well nigh proved our 
ruin. This I am aware is a delicate and difficult task ; hut 
something would he achieved by requiring, in every case, 
that the officer who has the power of removal should he re¬ 
quired to report, on his official responsibility, the reasons for 
said removal to the Senate of the United States. 

Tivelfth .—There should be an explicit declaration as to 
who may exercise the power of suspending the privilege of 
the writ of habeas corpus, “ when in cases of rebellion, or 
invasion, the public safety may require it.” This question 
should be settled clearly, one way or the other. It is a great 
question, and requires, for the safe disposition of it, an en¬ 
larged statesmanship. Fortunately, this question is as 
broad as the Country, and equally concerns the whole peo¬ 
ple. No doubt there are also other amendments of the Con¬ 
stitution which might be wisely proposed, but it is not 
deemed advisable to suggest them now. 

People of the North, say not that these concessions are 
too large. People of the South, say not that they are too 
small. Could they be introduced into our Constitution by 
amendments made according to its provisions, all just causes 
of complaint would be removed from every section of the 
Country ; and the nation would once more present to the 
world the great example of a united, free, and happy peo¬ 
ple, bound to each other by indissoluble ties, and able to 
defend our rights against all who may dare to invade them. 

The first proposed amendment, by finally strangling the 
hydra of secession, would be of more worth to our Country 
than mountains of gold. The second would relieve our leg¬ 
islative halls from all discussions as to the constitutionality of 
a tariff, and leave it, as it should be left, to the sound legis¬ 
lative discretion of Congress. The third would present to 
the world a noble example of a nation contented with her 
boundaries; and well may we be so, for they enclose an im¬ 
perial area free from the invasion of all foreign foes. The 


21 


fourth is intended to prevent the possibility of future ques¬ 
tions, and would not rais'S serious objections in any part of 
the Country. 

The fifth proposed amendment is a concession to the South, 
which I think it would he right and wise to make. It would 
cut up by the roots a question which has well nigh shattered 
our magnificent Empire. If no more territory is to be ac¬ 
quired, may I not say to our brethren of the North, Kefuse 
not this concession to your brethren of the South. Produc¬ 
tion and climate will soon settle the institutions of all the 
territory we now own. In the judgment of many, of the 
territory now owned by the Government there is no part 
fitted for slave-labor. Be that as it may, the concession 
would he in the spirit which first framed the Constitution ; 
and would aid much in the restoration of peace, harmony, 
and brotherly love. 

The sixth and seventh proposed amendments are fair and 
just, and ought to he freely conceded. The eighth is also, 
in my judgment, right and proper, as the southern man may 
well claim the right at all times hereafter to take the domes¬ 
tic attendants on himself and family, when he may visit the 
Capital of his Country, either for business or pleasure. The 
ninth is fair. Let the migration of slaves from one State to 
another he dependent on the laws of the respective States. 
This right the southern man will never willingly yield. 

The tenth proposition is but the fair carrying-out of a 
clear provision of the Constitution. Honor, fairness, and 
patriotism all demand that it shall be fully enforced. The 
best plan of getting clear of personal-liberty laws of the 
States, intended to interfere with this right, is for the Con¬ 
stitution to deny all right of State interference with persons 
held by the process of the United States, as fugitives from 
service or labor. Surely the honor of the Government may 
he trusted that it will see no injustice be done in exe¬ 
cuting this power. 

The eleventh amendment proposed, if the object can be 
achieved without destroying the efficiency of Executive ac- 


22 


tion, would be hailed throughout the country as giving 
fresh life and vigor to our institutions. The twelfth deals 
with a difficult question ; at the same time it is clearly right 
that the Constitution should speak in clear and explicit 
terms on that delicate and important subject. 

These, People of my Country, are amendments which, if 
adopted, would, in my poor judgment, place, the American 
people once more on the road to glory and renown. I offer 
them to you in the fullness of my heart, as my contri¬ 
bution to the welfare of a Government, in fidelity to which 
my heart knows no shadow of turning. I invoke the grave 
and patriotic thinkers of our land to pass judgment on 
them. 

Put down the doctrine of secession forever as to the fu¬ 
ture; leave our revenues to be laid and collected, to the ex¬ 
tent of our wants, to the sound discretion of Congress,without 
any possibility of constitutional question in the future; let 
the bounds of the Kepublie be closed except by unanimous 
consent; let the foreign slave-trade be absolute^ prohibited; 
leave the territories, whilst such, free for the occupation of 
all our citizens with their institutions; proclaim absolute 
non-interference by the Government with slavery in the 
States where it may exist by the laws thereof; adopt the 
same rule in regard to all the United States arsenals, dock 
yards, and forts where, and whilst, they may be situate 
in slave States; give the right to all our citizens to visit and 
sojourn in the District of Columbia with their families and 
their attendants, so long as slavery may exist in any State 
in the Union ; leave the States, respectively, to regulate 
the passing of slaves from one slave State to another slave 
State; let the Government undertake the entire question of 
the surrender of fugitives from service or labor; strike dead, 
by constitutional enactment, all power in the States to inter¬ 
fere, by personal-liberty laws or otherwise, with the action 
of the General Government in the premises, and provide a 
fair compensation to the owner, in case such surrender shall 
be prevented by force of any kind ; annihilate the doc- 


23 


trine of political proscription ; and make clear and speci¬ 
fic constitutional declarations as to the suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpus, and by whom, and you will lay 
deep the foundations of our National Union, and restore, 
once more, throughout the North and the South, the East 
and the West, that deep rooted love for the whole Country 
which must ever constitute the true strength of the nation. 

Do these things, and we shall never again behold the sad 
spectacle of American citizens dwarfing their loyalty to a 
State, rather than enlarging it to the Country. Do these 
things, and the words, the Union and the Constitution, will 
once more tower in lofty majesty over those far inferior 
words, the North or the South, the East or the West. 
Let it but once be admitted that the paramount loyalty of 
the citizen is due to the General Government, and this na¬ 
tion will no more have cause to grieve over the course of 
many of her children, who in their love for their particular 
State, or section, seem to have forgotten that they have a 
Country. 

The Genius of America, of late, has shed bitter tears over 
the desertion of many of her sons whom she had trained 
under her banners, and to whom she believed she might 
safely commit the Flag of the Nation on every field and 
against every foe. Others have proved worthy of her care 
and confidence, and are ready this day to uphold the National 
Flag against father, brother, child or state. May I say to 
these noble men, You are treading in the track trodden by 
heroes before you. In sustaining your Country against all 
enemies, domestic or foreign, you show that you understand 
full well the duties of an American citizen—a name prouder 
and more sacred than that which the great Apostle vouched 
as his protection and shield. 

Amongst these brave and noble men, the tall and venera¬ 
ble form of their great Chief stands proudly pre-eminent. 
Virginia gave him birth, in days when she devoted from the 
cradle the noblest of her sons to the Country. She formed 
his soul too great to yield its allegiance to a State or a sec- 


24 


tion. Amidst her tears, the Genius of our country smiles 
fondly on him, the greatest and truest of her living sons. 
Others have faltered ; he has proved true. In many a bat¬ 
tle-field he has borne our flag so bravely, that the future 
Plutarch may well hesitate, whether the greater glory has, 
by him, been received from, or conferred on, the stars and 
stripes. Venerable man ! a nation prays that you may live 
to see your Country once more united and happy ; and when 
in the fullness of time your weeping countrymen shall, with 
reverent care, commit your noble form to its last resting- 
place, another will have been added to the sacred places of 
our Country, where American youth may best learn the sim¬ 
ple but grand lessons of courage , conduct and fidelity. 

People of Maryland, the kindness with which many of 
you have heretofore heard me, has encouraged me to speak to 
you again. I shrink with apprehension lest any one should 
suppose that I seek notoriety. Those of you who know me 
will hear witness that, so far from seeking the public gaze, 
my life has been passed in the secluded paths of my profes¬ 
sion. I speak to you now, because my soul is moved to its 
utmost depths by the—perhaps—dying struggles of my 
Country. Hot tears have stained these pages. I am not 
ashamed to confess it. I watch the throes of my Country as 
I would the dying bed of a mother ; impotent to give help, 
and yet impelled by feelings beyond my control, to attempt 
any conceivable aid. It may be that aid will be of no avail ; 
and yet I cannot but struggle, as best I may, to avert the 
terrible blow which aims to strike from my soul the pride, 
the love, the homage, the worship, which, for sixty years, 
it has borne for the Union. If that blow fail of its fell pur¬ 
pose, I will give thanks to God for the greatest earthly bless¬ 
ing that could be conferred upon me. If it succeed, it will 
be but left for me to shed over the ruins of my Country, 
tears more bitter, more scalding, than those which water 
the grave of a pure and noble Mother. 

WILLIAM H. COLLINS. 

Baltimore, September 2, 1861. 





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